Greaves Cotton Ltd on Friday said its wholly-owned arm Ampere Vehicle will acquire a 26 per cent stake in MLR Auto, a manufacturer of electric three-wheelers for Rs 18.81 crore.
The acquisition enables Ampere, the electric vehicle arm, to expand its last-mile mobility product portfolio and offer electric cargo three-wheelers to its retail and B2B customers.
Ampere Vehicles Pvt Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Greaves Cotton Ltd, has signed definitive agreements on August 13, 2021, to make an investment in MLR Auto Ltd, the company said in a regulatory filing.
Under the agreements, Ampere will initially acquire a 26 per cent stake on a fully diluted basis at the initial phase and has the right to increase the same to 51 per cent on a fully diluted basis subject to fulfillment of customary closing conditions, it added.
For the initial phase, Ampere will acquire a 26 per cent stake in MLR through a primary subscription for a consideration of Rs 18,81,20,230, the filing said.
In a statement, Ampere said the investment in MLR Auto is in response to the emerging needs of three-wheeler customers for "disruptive cost economics products that enhance daily savings and transform the ease of driving with emission-free and noise-free vehicles".
Commenting on the development, Greaves Cotton Managing Director and Group Chief Executive Officer, Nagesh A Basavanhalli said, "With this strategic stake in MLR Auto, Ampere Electric gets ready to operate as full range last-mile electric vehicle company with mass mobility solutions in both E-2W (electric two-wheeler) and E-3W (electric three-wheeler) segment." He further said, "Our commitment to growing the clean last mile with a wide variety of consumer-friendly solutions continues to gather momentum." MLR Auto Director Lokeswara Rao Mullapudi said, "We are confident that our combined strengths will help achieve new milestones of growth in the fast-growing and promising space of electric vehicles." Established in 2009, MLR Auto had a revenue from operations of Rs 14.84 crore in the finanicaial year 2018-19. In the financial year 2019-20, it stood at Rs 14.34 crore.
Ampere Electric had recently announced an investment of Rs 700 crore to set up an EV manufacturing unit at Ranipet in Tamil Nadu. The plant will have an annual capacity of up to 10 lakh E-2W.
